Ming Dynasty encyclopedia "Yongle dadian" won a bid for 970 million yen

Recently CNN.co.jp reported the following:

明代の百科事典「永楽大典」、９．７億円で落札

2020.07.09 Thu posted at 11:20 JST

Jack Guy, CNN

中国の明代に作られた百科事典「永楽大典」が競売に出品され、予想を１０００倍以上上回る８００万ユーロ（約９億７０００万円）で落札された。

永楽大典は、明の３代皇帝の永楽帝の指示によって編纂（へんさん）された。永楽帝の在位は１４０２～１４２４年。

競売を行ったフランス企業によれば、１４０４年から１４０８年にかけて行われた編纂には２０００人以上の学者が携わった。

永楽大典は世界でも最大級の百科事典でもともとは２万２８７７巻からなる。

１５６２年には副本が作られたが、原本は戦争や盗難などのために散逸した。

今回出品されたのは副本のうちの２巻で非常にまれなもの。当時は印刷技術も発展していたが、分量の多さから手で記されている。ひとつは中国の湖について書かれており、もうひとつは葬儀について記されていた。匿名の買い手が手数料を含む８１億２８００万ユーロで落札した。事前の落札予想額は５０００～８０００ユーロだった。

大英図書館には２４巻が所蔵されている。

Translation

An encyclopedia "Yongle Dadian" that was made in China's Ming Dynasty was put up for auction, and it was sold for 8 million euros (about 970 million yen), which was 1000 times more than expected.

The Yongle Daidian was compiled based on the instructions of the third emperor of Ming, Yongle. The reign of the Emperor Yongle was 1402-1424.

According to a French auctioning company, more than 2000 scholars were involved in its compilation from 1404 to 1408.

Yongle Dadian was one of the largest encyclopedias in the world and originally consisted of 22,877 volumes.

A duplicate was made in 1562, as the original was lost due to war and theft.

Two of the duplicates that were exhibited this time were very rare. While printing technology had been developed at the time, but due to the large volume, it was written by hand. One volume was about lakes in China and the other was about funerals. An anonymous buyer won the bid for €8,128 million including fees. The estimated price before bidding was between 5,000 and 8,000 euros.

 The British Library held 24 volumes.

              I am interested in knowing who is the buyer of these two volumes.